Naan vegan...

Vegetarianism has long since become a matter of social prestige (or contempt as the case may be) from being a matter of choice of food habit. All ye superior souls who wouldn't touch fish or meat or cakes with eggs... do you know that even Ramakrishna Paramahansa ate non-veg??

My reaction to these "vegetarians" has moved from ignore to irritation to annoyance to kill. It is an individual's choice to not eat meat just as much as it is another's choice to eat meat. Now, how does this make one superior enough to comment about or judge the other? For a number of years I have heard statements like "how many animals are being killed", "the smell of it makes me throw up".. oh for crying out loud!

A particular sect of these "vegetarians" seem to have conveniently forgotten other rules that were set for them. They aren't supposed to cross seas but they are first in queue outside American consolate in every Indian city. Did the Vedas make an exemption for Software Engineers? And a multitude of them have now formed a sub-sect called "egg-eterians"... these are people who wouldn't touch non-veg with a ten-foot long pole EXCEPT eggs. That egg contains everything that chicken does is a small fact that is overlooked.. as long as it doesn't move around and cluck and poo, they are ok.

For long I have had doubts whether they serve thayir vadai in Sub-way, degree kaapi in Starbucks and venpongal at Papa Johns... otherwise the NRI subset of this population which would eat only in "Pure-veg" restaurants would have died of starvation by now. If the purpose of vegetarianism is to stop killing other living things, I am sorry to state the bitter truth... vegetarians can only eat nuts, fruits and pulses and by the way they cant brush teeth, cant take anti-biotics while having diarrhoea - that will kill the germs, you see.

For the last time, it is not what one eats that defines the person one is.. it is the gratitude one feels about the food in hand that makes one a soul apart from others. One living thing killing another is nature's law - if it doesn't happen there is no eco system to live in. I am not advocating killing animals - I am only advising to stop cribbing about what is inside other people's mouth. Please complain only if a handful of butter chicken is thrusted into your mouth without your consent..

Internet never forgets... :)

I got an interesting email from a premier career-development website today. It went on to say why social media is a double-edged knife... while it lets you express, share and discover there is also the inherent danger of letting out way too much!

For instance, if you are using Facebook or Twitter to update the world everytime you are irritated at your boss, chances are high that the next time you are out in the job market, potential employers treat this as an attitude problem and not contact you at all! The email infact provided relevant statistics based on a survey it conducted amongst several recruiters in the North American market. I am not sure how much this applies to the Indian scenario but the trend will soon catch up... mostly in the IT space to start with.

Come to think of it, in the last 3 months, whenever I had to interview a candidate, I have always checked his/her LinkedIn and Twitter profiles (if any) before even starting the interview.. and asked questions based on whatever I saw on their profiles. It was surprising how unconscious I was about the way I personally use social media and this email I got today was like a wake-up call...

So, here's to anyone who reads this post... be careful on what you put on your social status... if you do not want to talk about something standing in the middle of your office's lunch room... you probably should not be putting it on FB or orkut. Internet has ears & eyes all over the place in the form of umpteen businesses that are making life easier and easier for others to search your content on the web. The Web 2.0 elephant can remember very well and it's memory is so powerfully indexed that your boss can fire you for bitching about the company on FB so quickly, that by the time your friends see it, you would probably be jobless!!

I need a pensieve..

Feels like my brain is getting clogged with too many things... it would be great to borrow Dumbledore's pensieve for a week. Some questions that have been haunting me...

1. Why do I cry at the drop of a hat these days?

2. Why can't I stop making a fool of myself - my temper is just simmering below the surface these days!

3. Why do I miss my friends?

4. What can I do to forget the past?

5. How to accept people for what they are?

6. How to let go of what people did to me?

7. What is it that I want to do with my life?

8. Why don't I feel excited about stepping out of bed and going to work?

9. Why have I become so lazy?

10. Why can't I stop watching "Friends"?

I wish someone lent me their ears for 2 hours and stopped judging me....

Daddy cool

Apparently Jun 21st is Fathers' Day it seems.. the first piece of information that I came across this morning. It sucks already not being able to celebrate parents' silver jubilee anniversary now the world is celebrating Fathers' Day on my late dad's birthday. Brilliant.. just what I wanted... one more reason to sulk!

I know I shouldn't feel bad cuz of other people's happiness but hey.. that's just what I feel. I want to have my dad back.. when I see someone getting dropped by their father, when my friend talks about going on a trip with her dad, when my cousins celebrate their parents' wedding day... it is so so so grossly unfair :(

I wish I had known him better, I wish I could complain to him when things get too hard, I wish he was there at my graduation wearing my top hat, I wish I cried a bit more when he passed away, I wish I told him what a great dad he would have been... it probably would make me feel better today!

I hate the Hallmarks and Archies of the world for inventing these "days"...! You suck, guys!

Chennai-88

Came home after a long time.. it feels like everything has changed in a very short period of time. I am finding it hard to cope with the very people with whom I have spent 20 years of my life. Is it part of the growing up process?

When I used to visit home on weekends, I felt more close to my family. But in the last one yr I hardly came here... traveling and vacations were luxuries that I couldn't afford given the ISB schedule. I donno whether the year that I spent almost alone has changed me or my absence changed them. I wish it is just a passing cloud and things will be the same soon...

Whatever said and done, nothing like being at home sweet home :)

IE8 RC1 released

..and it is super-fast compared to IE7!! Here is finally a product from Microsoft that might actually give Google Chrome a run for its money. I switched to Chrome 3 days after it was released and have not touched IE ever since except when I had to login to some Java enabled sites that simply won't work on Chrome. And I was of the opinion that IE lost me forever. But looks like v8 might actually succeed in winning my respect back. (A bit of history here - I was virtually married to IE all my life and had never used any other browser till Chrome came along.)

IE8 has bundled some cool features like Web slicing, suggested sites, InPrivate browsing (like Incognito mode in Chrome) but the true difference is in the speed. As someone who has used IE long enough to crib, I must say that it doesn't feel like IE at all, if you know what I mean:)!
However, I am really not sure about the timing... what is microsoft gonna do to reclaim its lost share in the browser market? More marketing? More bundling with the operating system? Or does M$ even care that it lost a few hundred thousand users to other browsers? Probably not. That said, I can't decide whether I will switch back to IE8 after becoming so accustomed to Chrome's speed, omnibox and quick find. For one, there is a strong association of IE with "slow" in my mind - just like many others who have moved away from IE.

But if Microsoft is to meet the competition that is popping from unprecedented avenues, it cannot go on ignoring lost customers. The world is moving online and if MS is losing its share in the very browser market that enables the world move online, it is a serious issue to be considered. IE may not be a money maker but it completes the vision of "seamless experiences that combine...software with..internet across a world of devices" (More info here). With Firefox, Safari and Chrome at 22%, 8% and 1% shares respectively (Source: NetApps), MS must work harder to retain its two-thirds of the pie. If it doesn't, it is probably digging the first feet of its own grave.

20 days to go...

It's a hot summer evening and am in one of those unusually stock-still state of mind. Just realized that starting today, I have exactly 20 more days left at ISB. Boy.. that was one quick year that just zapped by! It feels like yesterday when I was standing in the endless queue for getting my educational loan approved and scurrying around the main building of my would-be alma mater doing the different things that were required to be done before I could officially get started at the school.

Now, here I am in the last term and all mails of graduation, vacating and packers n movers have started flowing in. At some level I feel extremely nostalgic - not just bcuz I am leaving ISB but I am gonna leave the city which has been my home for the past 4+ yrs. It wouldn't be a far cry if I said that life at Hyderabad has made me the person I am. This is the place where I started afresh n learnt to deal with things on my own, where I lived away from my lovely family, where I made great friends, where I laughed, cried and learnt some hard lessons. 

These four years have taught me the alphabets of being an individual and am sure I will remember those wherever I go from here. I do not know my destination but I know where I am starting - this journey forward will definitely be worth my while or so I hope!